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This discursive paper presents a lived experience leadership model as developed as part of the Activating Lived Experience Leadership (ALEL) project to increase the recognition and understanding of lived experience leadership in mental health and social sectors. The model of lived experience leadership was formulated through a collaboration between the South Australian Lived Experience Leadership & Advocacy Network and the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research and Education Group.

As one of the outcomes of the ALEL research project, this model incorporates findings from a two-year research project in South Australia using participatory action research methodology and cocreation methodology. Focus groups with lived experience leaders, interviews with sector leaders and a national survey of lived experience leaders provided the basis of qualitative data, which was interpreted via an iterative and shared analysis. This work identified intersecting lived experience values, actions, qualities and skills as characteristics of effective lived experience leadership and was visioned and led by lived experience leaders.

The resulting model frames lived experience leadership as a social movement for recognition, inclusion and justice and is composed of six leadership actions: centres lived experience; stands up and speaks out; champions justice; nurtures connected and collective spaces; mobilises strategically; and leads change. Leadership is also guided by the values of integrity, authenticity, mutuality and intersectionality, and the key positionings of staying peer and sharing power.

This model is based on innovative primary research, which has been developed to encourage understanding across mental health and social sectors on the work of lived experience leaders in seeking change and the value that they offer for systems transformation. It also offers unique insights to guide reflective learning for the lived experience and consumer movement, workers, clinicians, policymakers and communities.

Little is known about the leadership educators who work in more than 2,000 leadership programs worldwide. This phenomenological study of 13 experienced leadership educators from four states and 11 universities explored the lived experiences of becoming and being a leadership educator in higher education. Four sub themes emerged from participants’ understanding of becoming a leadership educator: (a) Impact; (b) Serendipity; (c) Fake it till you make it; and (d) Developing others. And, six sub themes emerged from participants’ understanding of being a leadership educator: (a) Being a helper; (b) Being experimental; (c) Being an advocate; (d) Being a role model; (e) Being passionate; and (f ) Being an agitator.

International students develop perceptions about leadership based on cultural practices in their home country. What is the leadership experience of international students in the United States? This study sought to describe the lived leadership experiences of international graduate students. A total of 17 participants, from 11 different countries were recruited for face-to-face in- depth interviews. The participants were enrolled in a large public university and served in a formal leadership position on campus. Four themes emerged concerning graduate students’ leadership experience with leadership and were categorized as: (1) contextually challenging; (2) essential; (3) task and people oriented, and; (4) rewarding. Recommendations are made for campus personnel and leadership educators who support international students.

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of leadership development as experienced by non-government organization (NGO) executive leaders in international agricultural development. Data were collected from twelve executive NGO leaders through in-depth interviews to understand the textural and structural essences of the participants’ lived experiences of leadership development. Findings indicated the integral role of mentoring in leadership development prior to obtaining an executive leadership role and supported the conceptual model inclusive of mentoring as a mediating factor of efficacious leadership development. The study provided implications and future research recommendations for executive leaders in international agricultural development, as well as for leadership educators and practitioners.

This study aims to explore the individual lived crucible experiences of women leaders in higher education (HE) and business as the catalyst to investigate organisational inequality regimes that prevent women leaders from fully participating, contributing and flourishing at work. Drawing upon Bolman and Deal’s four-frame theoretical organisational model, this study analyses women’s lived crucible leadership experiences to better understand the organising processes and practices that render intersectionality invisible that reinforce and perpetuate inequality regimes.

A collaborative autoethnographic research method was selected for data collection. The research team members each selected one significant crucible moment from their professional career and used the Gibb’s six-part reflective cycle to document their narrative and reflect on their leadership experience. A reflexive thematic analysis was used based on Braun and Clarke’s six phases.

The study features the importance of creating a climate in organisations that acknowledges the need for greater equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to support women leaders. Four global themes emerged from the analysis of the leadership narratives: organisation, power dynamics, emotional distress and perseverance and intersectionality. These themes illuminate a greater understanding of organisational life for women and confirm the presence of inequality regimes of gender and race.

This is the first study to explore the impact of women leaders’ crucible experiences through the lens of the Bolman and Deal’s model that highlights the need to consider an EDI lens as the fifth frame.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and contextualize the processes of leadership development through mentoring in a Leadership Learning Lab (“the Lab”) and to explore the implications and applications of the Lab's approach as a social learning space.

The authors used a constructivist grounded theoretical approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with participants in the Lab, which operated out of a leadership center in a mid-sized Canadian business school.

The findings show that participants used their individual life experiences to practice leadership development through mentoring in a social learning space of prescribed uncertainty. The participants identified with becoming flexible, self-actualized leaders by learning to view their own experiences and those of their Lab partners through a leadership lens.

This study contributes to an understanding of the “doing” of leadership development in a social learning space and highlights three relational processes through which leadership development emerged through mentoring: rapport-building, democratization and reflection.

The leadership of people with lived experience of mental health problems is underdeveloped, when it comes to leadership in one's own recovery, at the service level, and at the systemic level. Unlike the mental health system, the user/survivor movement has a values base of empowerment and equality. But the movement has not yet created an explicit model of leadership based on these values. Conventional models of leadership have little to offer but critiques of it provide a good framework for users and survivors to build its own model of leadership upon. If user/survivor leadership is to thrive, new roles, practices and competencies need to be developed. At a deeper level, there needs to be philosophical, psychological and political shifts in service systems if user/survivor leadership is to ever take root. Furthermore, the leadership of empowerment and equality should pervade all the leadership in service systems and beyond.

In an effort to better understand leadership educator preparation, this qualitative study explores leadership educators’ identity constructions, or (re)presentations of experiences, beliefs, and practices that contribute to one’s professional identity. We used three narrative approaches (storytelling, symbolic interactionism, and anticipatory reflection) to capture short stories of leadership educators’ lived experiences and life perspectives. Analysis of these narratives illustrate the kinds of past experiences that led to shifts in thinking or practice. Leadership education was seen as a process of leadership development, with teachers and students both exercising leadership. And participants’ reflection on their intentions for future practice emphasize learning that is both personal (relational) and procedural (developing knowledge and skills). Findings offer insight into recommendations for intentional professional development experiences and future research.

Leadership studies which focus on categorising leadership styles have been critiqued for failure to consider the lived experience of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of Jepson’s model of contextual dynamics to explore whether this framework assists understanding of the “how and why” of lived leadership experience within the nursing profession.

Themes for a purposeful literature search and review, having regard to the Jepson model, are drawn from the contemporary and dynamic context of nursing. Government reports, coupled with preliminary interviews with a nurse leadership team, guided selection of contextual issues.

The contextual interactions arising from managerialism, existing hierarchical models of leadership and increasing knowledge work provided insights into leadership experience in nursing, in the contexts of professional identity and changing educational and generational profiles of nurses. The authors conclude that employing a contextual frame provides insights in studying leadership experience. The author propose additions to the cultural and institutional dimensions of Jepson’s model.

The findings have implications for structuring and communicating key roles and policies relevant to nursing leadership. These include the need to: address perceptions around the legitimacy of current nursing leaders to provide clinical leadership; modify hierarchical models of nursing leadership; address implications of the role of the knowledge workers.

Observing nursing leadership through the lens of Jepson’s model of contextual dynamics confirms that this is an important way of exploring how leadership is enacted. The authors found, however, the model also provided a useful frame for considering the experience and understanding of leadership by those to be led.

This paper aims to explore how informal and socially situated learning and gendered practices impact the experiences of women learning to lead and the gendered dynamics inherent in women’s lived experiences of learning.

The authors adopt a becoming ontology and a social constructionist perspective. A qualitative approach guided by feminist principles facilitated the surfacing of rich and reflective accounts from women leaders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 women leader priests in Canada.

The authors highlight how gendered practices are concealed and revealed through informal learning processes and illustrate this through two themes, informal and socially situated learning as inductive and gendered, and the jolt of gender discrimination in informal learning.

While each account from the women church leaders is highly valued in its own right and the women’s stories have generated new insights, the overall data set is small and not generalizable. Future research should explore further the types of informal learning initiatives and systems, which acknowledge and best support women learning to lead in (gendered) organizations. It should also explore how informal learning informs leadership styles in this and other contexts.

The research demonstrates how informal learning experiences can serve as a site for invisible and unaccounted for gender bias and inform the becoming of women leaders. The research also advances the limited body of work that seeks to better understand the gender dynamics of women’s leadership in faith-based organizations.